More Leo Than You Think
by Hermes's Least Favorite Child
Summary: Leo is split into seven core parts that make up his being. His friends see parts of him they had never seen before. They see the sadness he has in his heart, his inferiority, his aggressive side, and the flat out evil part all heroes posses. They see the comedian, loving, and the creative guy. But how do they get the seven Leos to combine and become the one guy they know and love?
1. Chapter 1

They stared at the dying carcass of a demon. Seven demigods from the Argo II weren't sure which kind of monster she was, but she had tried to slash Frank to bits, so they decided she would be better in Tartarus.

The demon's dark red eyes glowed with a sneer as she slowly disappeared.

"You worthless demigod heroes don't know the first thing about what some of you are," she hissed. She raised a disappearing finger to Leo. "Like that one. You think you know him? Ha! Then I curse you all to find out _everything_ about him."

Leo stared at her, eyes growing fuzzy and cloudy. "How would _you_ know anything about me?"

"I know many things, I _see _people," she whispered. "You…you have many. The Lover, the Joker, the Mourner, the Maker, the Fighter, the Seventh, and…of course the….the one you fear most. All of them I see."

Leo was looking scared now.

Jason looked at his friend's discomfort and stood in front of him. "Leave him alone, you worthless monster. Have fun in Tartarus!"

Cracks appeared all over her face as though she was made of glass. "You try to protect him, Jason Grace. Leo Valdez's biggest hurts are something he had fought by himself for years. You have not helped him and do not even know.

"But you still think…you truly know…him."

"I do!" Jason yelled. "I'm his best friend! Leo's an open book."

"You…know…_nothing_," she hissed. "Open book…you don't know the scars."

Her body began to sink into powder. But the demon laughed loudly. She cackled and shrieked with maniacal pleasure. The son of Hephaestus shook as he covered his ears, sinking to his knees and muttering, "No, no, no!"

She disappeared into foul smelling yellow dust. But her laugh still rang through the air. Leo's eyes turned a dark gray instead of their usual warm brown. He fell face-first onto the deck.

"Leo!" Hazel screamed, racing to help him. But he was as slack as putty. "We have to get him to the sick bay! HE'S NOT BREATHING!"

* * *

They all stood around Leo who was lying down on a bed in the sick bay.

"He's not dead," Hazel whispered, breaking the silence. "But for some reason, he's not breathing. Like Nico's death trance, but he's not a son of Hades or Pluto."

Piper was taking shallow breaths. Then she leaned over, grabbed Leo's shoulders, and began shaking him, sobbing. "Wake up, Leo, you can't die!"

She poured all the charmspeak she could into her words, terrified that one of her friends would die. Piper hadn't treated Leo good enough in the past. She regretted all the times when she had left Leo in the dust so she could spend some quality time with Jason.

"I'm sorry for everything just please wake up!" she yelled.

Jason sadly put a hand on Piper's shoulder. "Pipes, none of this is your fault. Don't-"

Frank was shaking. "I-I-Is Leo going to be okay?"

Hazel didn't answer, only stared at Leo and began to cry, shrugging. Piper kept on shaking him, fear making her mad. Leo began to foam slightly at the lips. Seeing the normally grinning and happy face of their friend ashen and sad hurt more than a stab to the heart.

"Pipes, stop it, you're not helping!" Jason said desperately, trying to pry his girlfriend off of Leo. "You're going to really choke him! His head's going to fall off or something!"

Piper was crying and screaming as she tried to slap Jason away. "Get off of me, Jason! Wake up, Leo, we need you! Come on!" Leo said nothing nor moved. Piper concentrated, pouring every inch of charmspeak power she had into two words. "_WAKE UP_!"

Leo's body convulsed as though electrocuted. He spluttered and his eyes snapped open.

"Thank gods," Piper bawled as she hugged Leo. "I thought you were dead!"

"I'm fine," Leo mumbled. His eyes were unfocused. "Just a bit…sick." He leapt out of bed and raced for the nearest bathroom, the green tinge on his face completing his Latino elf face.

Hazel rubbed her arms. "He seems alright. But I'm still kinda worried about that Death Trance thing a second ago back there. What was that all about?"

Frank hugged her. "I don't know, Haze. But some things don't need an answer. Maybe everything's going to turn out okay."

"NO!" everybody else screamed entirely.

Hazel slapped Frank away like he was a huge bug. Frank looked terrified that his mouth had actually spewed the cursed demigod words. Percy closed his eyes to prepare for the inevitable madness that was sure to ensue in the next second.

The sound that greeted him was Leo's screaming.

They raced onto the lower deck where the closest bathroom was located. Leo was screaming bloody murder on the other side like there was a serial murderer hid behind the shower curtain rather than a rubber ducky.

"Leo?' Percy yelled tentatively. The screaming didn't stop. "Do you…uh…do you need an indigestion tablet or something?"

Annabeth smacked her boyfriend's arm. "I don't think that's the reason he's screaming, seaweed brain. Kick the door down or something!"

Frank tapped her shoulder. "Uh, Annabeth? You girls might not know this but this is a boys' bathroom."

She turned slowly in a dangerously calm manner. "Let me get this straight. You're okay controlling a legion of undead warriors, Jason's fine any day to slay a few dozen monsters, Percy's been in TATARUS, but you're squeamish in kicking down a boys' bathroom door with a dying team mate inside in front of a few girls?"

He nodded. "Uh-huh."

"_Di Immortales!" _Annabeth cursed. "Fine!"

All the females turned around. Hazel shot him a grateful look. If it happened that Percy's indigestion theory was correct, then she would be eternally grateful to her boyfriend for shielding her eyes from any of that unpleasantness.

Then Frank turned into a gorilla and beat the door in exact moment Leo's screaming stopped. The door burst open.

Annabeth was still cursing Frank underneath her voice for being such a sexist idiot, saying she had had enough of that in the temple of Mithras. Piper was listening intently for any sounds. Hazel was listening also, just not as intently just in case, you know, Percy was right.

"Uh…" the heard Jason mumble.

"What in the name of Pluto?!" Frank squeaked.

Percy didn't make a noise but they could guess he would be just as flummoxed as the other two. Annabeth threw her hands up in exasperation and stormed to the other side of the wall.

"_What_ is going…? Oh."

Piper and Hazel exchanged glances and then they both rushed to the supposed scene of crime.

There, in the bathroom, were seven bodies. All alive, but barely. And, for some reason, all of those bodies were Leo. Almost Leo, anyway. They all had a few characteristics that showed they weren't the same.

Piper just stared, jaw slacked open.

Hazel was the first person to be able to think properly, although nobody would be able to confirm this. _You know what, Jupiter? I'll take sea sickness and tough it out every day for the rest of my life on this boat, just _please _stop giving us these problems._

One of the bodies stirred. Everybody who was fully conscious drew weapons in case this guy was dangerous. Frank's bow and arrow were in his room so he reached for the sword mounted on display on the wall. "Leo" stood up and hobbled over to the doorway, knees knocking together like they were jelly.

"_That_ was terrible," he said with disgust.

Annabeth rubbed her forehead with a free hand that was not holding her ivory white sword. Hold up. This guy looked like Leo, alright, but his eyes were a soft brown and his curls were in his eyes which made him look cuter. Everything about his body showed confidence. His clothes were crisp and white, his face and hair didn't have a smudge of grease or oil which was _very _different from the regular Leo. And he was taller and slightly buffer although he had the attractive scrawny factor.

**(A/N: Remember, this is Annabeth we're talking about. She is not saying this in a romantic way; it's just a note of thought. I'm all Percabeth.)**

Then Leo caught sight of Hazel and he grinned, showing pearly-white teeth.

"Hey, beautiful," he said in a sweet voice.

Frank hit him on the head with the flat of his blade. Leo's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he toppled forward like a domino.

"Frank," Hazel scolded. "That was not nice."

He shrugged. "That one I feel like Valdez walked into."

"What exactly did I walk into?"

The six demigods looked back into the bathroom. One of the corpses had come back to life without their noticing because they had been so caught up with Frank and Hazel's bickering.

This guy's hair was slightly less curly and his mouth was screwed in a permanent scowl. The first thought that raced through Percy's head was, _ah, a Latino Nico di Angelo! _His clothes weren't splattered with oil or grease. They were scuffed and ragged. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows to show long and lean arms paired with calloused hands.

Frank raised his weapon again just in case this new Leo decided to compliment Hazel a bit too nicely again but the other Leos scowl bent into a smirk.

"Please," he snorted, and whipped a hammer out of his tool belt and chucked it at Frank.

The son of Mars couldn't react quickly enough but it luckily wasn't aimed at his face. It knocked his sword out of his hand. But that wasn't the impressive part. It ricocheted off of the blade, hit Jason's sword, and then shot to Percy.

Who thought he was expecting it, but the hammer seemed to have a mind of its own like Thor's hammer because it was expecting Percy to expect it and thus grabbed the edge of his blade using the nail-bitey thing on the back.

Leo pounced and grabbed the hammer again, along with Riptide and then used the sword to disarm Hazel and Piper in the blink of an eye and then victoriously pressing it against Annabeth's neck.

"Still thinking of raising that sword?" he said with a sneer and then slowly eased the blade away from Annabeth's throat. "Think again. Now stay here like good puppies until I wake the other losers up."

He waltzed into the bathroom and nudged the other bodies that were in there. One was sprawled face down on the floor. Two were leaned over the bathtub. One was leaned in the corner, one hand limp in the sink. The last one, seven in total, was curled in fetal position on the toilet seat which Percy was dying to take a photo of but then decided this was not the right moment.

"Wake up," the harsher version of Leo barked as he kicked all the other Leos. "I SAID GET UP!"

"He'd get along with Coach Hedge and your dad just fine," Jason muttered to Frank.

Frank winced but there were some things you couldn't deny.

The first one to move twitched once, lay still, and then shot to his feet like some nuclear-powered chipmunk.

"Hey, everyone!" he said, beaming.

This Leo was like the first Leo, nice and orderly, put through a food disposer. His curly hair was all over the place and his eyes were huge and maniacal. The twitch in the left one kind of freaked Piper out. His clothes were all wrinkled but otherwise clean of grease. Still not like Leo. The original one, that is.

The second one opened his eyes slowly, trembling. His eyes were a watery brown, kind of like Tyson's, except he had two of them (duh.) This Leo's hair was limp and everything about him kind of screamed that the life had been beaten out. His back was hunched.

Then they realized that the reason his eyes were watery was because tears were leaking from them. He saw them looking at him and this sad Leo scrambled buck under the sink, hitting his head on the porcelain tiles but not caring. He ducked under it and put his hands over his ears, trying to block the nonexistent noises.

The third one opened his eyes which were a dark brown, one might even describe as scary. His hands were more…angular than curly, like he had used hair spray. His face was less round and cheerful like the happy-go-lucky elf they knew…correction, they _thought _Leo was.

**(A/N: Cue dramatic music!)**

The fourth Leo **(A/N: so many Leooooooooos. I LOVE IT!) **snorted awake and then rubbed his face which was smudged with engine oil, machine grease, and soot. His hands were hardened and forearms were just as tough and sinewy as the second Leo's. Except his clothes were in a complete mess, like someone had thought it would have been a good idea to wash them in grease and then put it through a food processor.

His hair was sticking all over the place, similar to how one would look if they had stayed up all night, thinking. His bloodshot eyes were similar to those belonging to a mad man or someone who had stayed up for days fed on nothing but determination and several liters of coffee.

The rather mean Leo with the hammer came to the tightly curled up Leo on the toilet cover and raised his leather-handled weapon to prod him but the other Leo said hoarsely, "I'm awake. I've been awake since the beginning."

Jason blinked. He had been so amazed by the number of the other Leos and their various appearances that he had forgotten about that one for a moment.

He slowly pulled himself into an upright sitting position and looked at the others, shoulders slumped over.

Hazel squinted. This Leo was kind of like Echo. His feature were hard to pinpoint, it was like he kept on shifting like a chameleon to sink into the shadows. But unlike Echo who looked like her entire body was like looking through a piece of blue plastic, this Leo was gray. Everything about him was a shade darker than usual. Mousey brown hair, ashy skin, sunken gloomy eyes that were like the London sky.

The one with the hammer rolled his eyes and then slammed the hammer on the sink. Porcelain crackled. Some dust floated down on the crying Leo's head.

"You going to get out or do I have to demolish this thing over your head?" Mean Leo said with a mocking kindness.

Sad Leo pulled himself into the bathtub to cry in peace after drawing the bath curtain. The first Leo that had woken up and Frank had knocked out was awake again and began to walk to Hazel very slowly.

"So, you doing anything later tonight?" he asked as he put a hand under her chin to pull her face up so she looked directly into his eyes,

**(A/N: were warm and chocolaty brown, and reaaaaally hooooooooooooooot. How do I know? Because I dreamt about this! …Man, I really need a life.)**

Hazel blinked. "Nothing. Want to have dinner in my cabin?"

Frank, aghast, pulled his girlfriend away. "Hazel, what are you doing?"  
Said daughter of Pluto blinked her eyes and then focused. "What just happened? Did he just make me say what I think he just made me say? STOP THAT."

Romantic Leo grinned. All females save for Annabeth looked away.

Percy and Annabeth weren't even that surprised that she was not affected. Going through countless death quests, being apart for eight months, being reunited, going through a Roman/Greek war ground, falling into Tartarus in each other's arms, coming back alive together, seeing the same tragedies with their eyes, and going on a war ship to Greece could really bond a couple.

**(A/N: Maybe I should do that with my boyfriend. Wait, Step 1, get a boyfriend…)**

"Without those boorish Leos in me, I can finally be as…effective as I can." He winked at Hazel who was trying to throw him a glare but instead sent him a smile. Frank's scowl etched deeper. "As you can see."

"Wait, I'm confused," Jason said. "What's up with…all you guys?"

"Interesting question, Captain McSparky Pants!" the manic looking Leo said as he bounded up to his friend and swung his arm over his neck. "We're Leo!"

The others all waved and said, yelled, whispered, grumbled, groaned, murmured, "hi," in perfect unison.

"You can't _all _be Leo," Piper said.

The Leo next to Jason threw his head back to laugh loudly. He then contained himself. "Au contraire, fabulosity beauty queen, yes we can! See, we've been split-up, at long last! We are the seven core parts that make Leo up."

"Well, Leo—" Annabeth began.

"Yes?" all seven of them asked.

The one with the hammer grabbed the nearest one who happened to be the guy with the black eyes by the collar and said, "Don't say the same thing as me."

Black-eyes stared at him not the least bit sorry. "Don't you know who I am?"

Hammer Thrower blinked and then dropped the guy. "Sorry 'bout that."

"This isn't going to work," Annabeth said with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. A huge migraines was about to kick in. She could already feel the tension burn in her temples. "We need nicknames. And none of you can be called Leo, because, frankly, none of you are Leo to me."

"Alas, I am wounded!" the romantic one said, putting hand over his heart and feigning pain. "Ah well. Call me…" his lips curled into a handsome smile. "Lover."

Frank leaned over to exaggeratedly cough into his hand. It sounded remarkably close to a laugh. "And why would you want to be called that?"

This time, he turned to Piper and smiled warmly. She blushed and giggled. Jason frowned and stood in front of her. "So all the _ladies _can call me that."

"Dang, that was actually a smooth move," Percy grumbled.

Next to Jason, the happy Leo laughed like there was no tomorrow. "Nice, Lover! But you don't want Sumo-Wrestler Chub-Wubs to call you that too, do you?"

"I can live if he's a package deal with the hottie next to him," he said with a shrug.

Frank was thinking, If he stabbed him, would real Leo get stabbed too? Or maybe the risk would be worth it…

"I'll be Joker!" he said gleefully, clapping his hands. Percy opened his mouth. "No, Little Mermaid prince, not the guy in the movie. Do I look like a serial killing clown with bad green hair? Didn't think so."

"I'll be Mourner," the Leo in the bathtub called in a soft, quavering voice. "So I can remember…Mom…"

Piper bit her lip. Was he the sad one? She knew Leo's mom's death hadn't been exactly easy on him, but she never expected that the sadness would be one of the seven core parts of Leo.

The messy Leo with all the machine stains was tinkering with a used battery and a package of strawberry Twizzlers. "Call me Maker."

Joker laughed. "Last time I checked, you weren't Ouranus _or _Gaea and both can kind of disagree if you take that title."

"Idiot," Hammer Guy whispered underneath his breath. He threw his hammer at the wall and it stuck there. The painted walls crackled more. "I'll be Fighter. That's what I do."

"Wait," Jason said, stepping up after giving Lover a warning glance. "I'm kind of confused. Leo doesn't fight."

Fighter shook his head, laughing. Then he took out a small power saw and moved so quickly, Jason didn't realize just how, until he was behind him and the edges of an electronic saw were poking into the skin of his neck. If he activated the saw, Jason's neck would…get messy.

"Who saved you from those Cyclopes?" he whispered into Jason's ear. "Who took out that hammer when you and I were being brainwashed by Medea? Who knew how to fire the _ballistae _when that eidolon possessed me? Who chucked that screwdriver to get Lovey Dovey Eyes 1 and 2 out of Tartarus? _Who do you think built this stinking warship in the first place?_"

"If I remember correctly, that would be me," Maker corrected, very annoyed. "I made this thing. Anyone want to argue with that?"

"Fine," Fighter admitted grudgingly. "But who gave you the ideas for where the weapons should go? I had the ideas and war schematics. You were the person who just made it into reality, that's it."

"'You were the person who just made it into reality.' Eight months of work put into eight words," Maker muttered as he twisted the candy string around the used battery twice. "I feel like I deserve a _little _more credit."

Jason was afraid to gulp. The movement might cause the barbed saw ends to pierce his throat. Piper sensed his discomfort and helped.

"Why don't you put the saw down, Fighter?" she said soothingly, willing a little charmspeak into her voice.

He grudgingly put the saw back into his pocket and withdrew a kitchen knife to stab the wooden walls.

"Stop that, do you know how hard I worked to make this warship?" Maker complained.

Lover came up behind Piper in a sneak attack while Jason was rubbing the red spots on his neck. He put his arms around her waist and blew a warm fluttery stream of air into her ear that made Piper limp.

"Good with looks _and _words," he said softly. "You won't need to do that to me, though, I'm all wrapped around your little finger already, Pipes."

"Boo, bad pickup line!" Joker called. "I love shouting at the cheesy characters on TV, but real life is even better!"

"That actually wasn't half-bad," Frank noted. He would mutate it and try it out on Hazel should the time come.

"Oh," Piper whispered. She sank into Lover's arms. Then she stiffened, whirled around, and slapped Lover as hard as she could. "STOP THAT."

He gave a demure grin which he actually pulled off despite his character. "Can't help trying, can I? Especially with such beauties aboard."

Jason took in a deep breath before taking Lover by the shoulders. This guy was as tall as him, though. "Leo. If this is just a prank you are trying to pull on us, and all these other guys are just guys who look a lot like you, then I am going to get a bat that Coach Hedge will be jealous about and hit you so hard, you'll be a homer all the way back to the Americas where I will _pay _the Stolls to prank you until you die."

"If all we're going to be talking is about Lover's messed up love life, can we leave?" Maker complained. "I have to get to my work room."

He had somehow managed to make a tiny car of Twizzlers and the empty battery to drive around in circles. Annabeth pointed to it. "How is that even _possible_?"

"I'm a special boy."

"Wait, you two haven't said your names," Percy said, pointing to the chameleon guy and black-eyes.

"Call me…Arri," (AH-ree) said black-eyes, with a cold smile that clashed with his smoldering coal eyes. The name of the guy sitting over there is Seventh."  
"Seventh," he echoed, and looked up.

His eyes were like misty voids of nothing. His melancholy expression wasn't as bad as Mourner's but still pretty bad.

"I get the other names," Piper said slowly, still glaring at Lover. "But what's up with yours?"

"Arri is kinda a nickname for my real name, which I feel no need to tell," he said with a sneer. "As to Seventh. Well, ask Witch Girl."

Hazel winced and tried to blink back tears. That terrible nickname. Leo _knew _how much it hurt her when she had been called that by all of the kids and adults in the village. Being called that by her friend with Sammy's face was a hundred times worse.

Then she remembered where the words "seventh" and "Leo" clicked.

"Oh, Nemesis," Hazel gasped. She rushed to pat Seventh's back but when she came close, for some reason, she had an instant repulsion to touching him like he had morphed into some sort of slimy thing. She gritted her teeth and reached forward but then he wasn't there.

She opened her eyes and saw that Seventh had somehow zapped to the other side of the room behind Maker who was tinkering with some pipe cleaners and push pins.

"How did he get there?" Hazel asked Annabeth but she looked just as confused as Hazel felt.

Arri laughed cruelly again and Hazel just found herself hating the guy. "You don't want to touch him? That's Seventh all over. No one wants him in any way, he's ignored and isolated from the world, he's—"

"I will always be the seventh wheel. I will never find a place among my brethren," Seventh said softly.

His eyes locked on Percy and Annabeth, Hazel and Frank, and lastly Jason and Piper. Then his gray eyes turned cloudy again and he stared at the wall. Hazel couldn't help but feel that he looked like some sort of dead, glass-eyed puppy dog.

"I never knew—" Piper began.

Then the shower curtain burst open and Mourner stormed out, jabbing a finger in her face. He was a crying mess, eyes bloodshot and tears falling like rain. "You're right. You _never _knew. I never expected too much of Jason because we were fake buds since the beginning—" Jason winced. "—but I thought you could have told! I have _no one _on this boat!

"Isn't it enough I watched my mom die? That I k-k…That I killed her myself? That I'm risking my life over a quest with a boat of people who nobody seems to care for? No, it's not, because all of my friends were taken too!" He swiped a sleeve angrily over his eyes. "Festus, you, Jason, Mom…all of you, gone!"

Piper was crying too now. "I'm sorry, Leo, I didn't mean to!"  
"Lying will make it worse," Arri said in a sing-song voice.

Note to self, almost everybody thought at the exact same time. Kill him later. (How to kill Arri was written very descriptively by Piper. It involved flesh-eating spiders and a pit of starving _empousai_ or two. Perhaps a barrel of maple syrup should she be lucky enough.)

Seeing Leo crying like this was _very _disturbing on _many _levels. Joker was still laughing though. "I should video-tape this and pawn it off to the Stolls as the first ever Demigod Soap Opera channel."

"Not everything is a joke, Joker," Frank snapped.

He grinned foolishly. "Of course it is. Of course everything is! That's how the world 'round, Zhang! Without any humor, the world would be a revolving Mourner and if that's what's going to happen, I'm gonna buy a rocket made of potatoes and iron ore from Maker and go to Mars. The planet, not your dad. They have Martian dudes I can tease."

"Leo's mindset," Seventh said softly. The rest of the seven jumped and felt guilty for forgetting Seventh again. "Be happy. Don't look back."

"I'm done," Mourner said hoarsely although he was still crying and he curled up in a corner and broke down. His eyes were squeezed shut as he sobbed into his knees. Nobody knew what to do.

Suddenly, Maker stood up. "Too noisy. Distracting. I'm going to my work room and _work _on something because this is getting way too carbon-based. I really don't work well with organic creatures."

He turned to leave but Annabeth stopped him. "Wait. But how do we put you all together again?"

He didn't even stop. "How should I know? I say we stay like this for a while. I can really focus without these fools in my head and you should get to know the others. Save for me and Joker, I think you know just enough to be a best friend."

The sarcasm really hurt but what could they say?

* * *

"I'm going to go get some popcorn!" Joker yelled as he skipped from the room. "Who knows what kinda drama this is going to lead to?"  
"No, you are saying here!" Annabeth shouted. "There's one good thing about Maker leaving is that now there's an equal amount of people to interrogate and to be interrogated. Pair up with a Leo, people."

Lover went straight to Hazel. "How about we 'interrogate' each other, sweetie?"

Hazel glanced at Frank like, "HELP ME. I AM GOING TO FALL FOR HIM. HE'S LIKE A FREAKING SON OF VENUS FROM THE UNDERWORLD. SCHIST."

Frank threw her a look and then stepped forward. "I'll ask you the questions, buddy. And I don't think we'll be making out during the session any time either."

Joker chuckled and high-fived Jason. "Buddies once, buddies forever, am I right? Ask me the questions, Sparky."

Mourner turned his wet eyes to Piper. "P-Please don't leave me here alone. I can try! I'll make an effort to be your friend again, we can make things work, just don't cast me aside like—" he broke down in tears half-way.

"Leo, I would never do that!" Piper whispered hoarsely. She thought of all the times she had exited Leo out of her mind so she could spend some quality time with Jason and cursed herself every time she remembered one. "Come on, let's go talk over a nice cup of hot chocolate like good times."  
Mourner still cried but nodded and tried to wipe the tears.

"I'll take this guy," Fighter said after minute, sizing Percy up and down like he was a practice dummy. This metaphor slightly became literal when Fighter took out an even larger hammer than the previous one and hefted it like it was made of marshmallows.

"This is not a sparring practice," Annabeth snapped. "Hazel, you go with Seventh. You seem to know him best, better than the rest of us in any case."  
"I will never fit in amongst others, driven out and constantly ripped from the photo," Seventh said in monotone as though he was spouting a prophecy like Rachel.

He drifted across the floor to stand near hazel who gulped, trying to ignore the bile in her throat and her reflexes that screamed EW! Run away from this ugly creep.

"That leaves you with me," Annabeth said to Arri. "Let's get started in my cabin."

They all split up.

* * *

"So, what happened?" she said bluntly.

She was sitting on her chair. He was sitting on her comforter, leaned back. "What do you mean?"  
"Nobody else has spontaneously combusted into seven core parts," she said, gray eyes burning into his black ones. "I'm guessing it's that demon's curse or something along those lines at least."

"Give the girl a prize," he said sarcastically. "That's right. He went into the bathroom, but as soon as he was away from the others, Leo tore like paper in a toddler's art convention."

"But what side are you? The sarcastic one? The cruel one? I can't pinpoint you like I can pinpoint the others," Annabeth said. Her eyes were narrowing and that usually signified "if I don't like your answer, you will be very uncomfortable." But he stared right back with his smoldering coal eyes.

"I'm…different." he smirked. "In a very special way, mind you. Any more questions before I get ticked?"

"Just a few." she said, eyes still narrowed with distrust. "Why do you seem to have some sort of ruler ship over the others?"

Arri sneered, black eyes flaring like a coal thrown in a fire. "I am what they fear. I have _caused _their fears. They know I am the rightful ruler. All of them but Maker, who _uses _me. Who thinks I am tool. A dangerous, lively _tool_. Do I look like a wrench to you?"

"A tool?" Annabeth closed her eyes and thought. Come on, daughter of Athena, the puzzle pieces were right there. She had to use what she knew and put them together. "The cause of fear…a tool…dangerous." She opened her eyes, jaw dropped. "You're the fire."

"Every now and then, a child of Hephaestus has it," he said. "I'm not Leo specifically. I've been alive for eons, going from child to child. The last one, Feynor, he started the Great Fire of London. He was one who knew how to use his power _properly_, not so he can bang away at some hot metal all day.

"But the one who his parents made the biggest impact on, Maker, he keeps me in check. It was easier to, because we were all one. But now…" his smile grew genuine. "I have my own body. My own mind. I can do what I want.

"Can you tell what my name stands for now, Smarty?"

"Arri…" Annabeth's eyes grew bigger. "Arsonist?"

"Atta girl," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Then his hands exploded in flames on the comforter. It spread over the fabric, licking at the walls and any other source of food material there was. This included Annabeth.


	2. Chapter 2

"So…" Percy said as he scratched his neck. "Where're we going?"

"Fighting dojo," Fighter called. He had trudged down the stairs without even looking at the son of Poseidon. "Leo built one but he never opened it. And he never goes, either, which is stupid. Maker is _such _a hog."

He went down a hallway Percy had never seen before. Then Fighter turned left and opened a door Percy had no idea even existed.

It was a doorway to fighting heaven. There were practice dummies lining the walls, weapons of all sorts lying around everywhere, targets on the ceiling and a bit away in the distance, and large circles for sparring.

"Cool," he said, impressed.

Fighter took a Celestial Bronze throwing knife off of a rack and then whirled around, chucking it at a target. It sank into the center.

Percy blinked. Leo really did have impeccable aim. Percy sat down on a practice dummy and tried to start up a conversation.

"So, what's up with the Leo Goes Ka-boom thing?" he asked.

Fighter snarled, "None of your business. Ask again and I'll practice lobotomy with a hammer on you in the middle of the night, got it?"

"Got it," he said weakly. "So…"

"I know you're supposed to ask me questions and all that stupid stuff," Fighter said. He grabbed a sword and hacked off a dummy's head. "But I'd be worried about your smart girlfriend."

Percy smiled bashfully. "Well—"

"Her being smart isn't a good thing," Fighter said gruffly. He hacked off an arm. "You don't want to be smart around Arri and get the pieces together. She's going to be needing your help really soon."

Percy stood up. "What do you mean?"

Her scream rang through the entire ship at that precise moment. He didn't ask how or why or what the Hades was going on. He just ran as fast as he could to wherever the screaming was coming from.

* * *

"ANNABETH!" Percy roared as he charged into the room. "ANNABETH!"

He ran into Annabeth's room to find that the doorknob was searing hot and locked. He could hear her screams behind the door and looked around, almost in tears. Then he took in a deep breath and kicked the hot door down.

The heat blasting from the room was hot enough to be the inside of a furnace. His girlfriend was pressed in a corner as terrible flames licked their way up her ceiling. The biggest blaze was on her bed. Sitting in the middle like it was the most comfortable bean bag chair in the world was none other than that Leo with the black eyes. Arri, was his name?

He was laughing like this was hilarious. But not Joker's light laugh. This one was laced with hatred and cruelty. Percy hated the voice immediately.

"Annabeth!" Percy screamed.

She jerked her hand away from one tall column of flames and looked at him with eyes that were huge with fear.

That's when he lost it.

Percy didn't think, he just thought _save Annabeth_. Then he ran through the fire like he was as flameproof as Leo and then pounced on top of the daughter of Athena like he was starving and she was the last pickle at the picnic.

"Percy, what are you doing!?" she shrieked as he wrapped his arms around hers, binding her.

"I'm okay as long as you're okay," he murmured, and sought to cover every inch of her with his own. The flames neared.

"That's so sweet," Arri drawled in an annoying voice as he flicked a fireball two inches from Percy's left ear.

Some of his hair singed off. Annabeth screamed, beating his chest to get him off of her but he wouldn't budge, eyes screwed shut and whispering into her ear all the while.

"It's okay, we'll be okay," he murmured.

"Percy, in case you haven't remembered, YOU'RE KINDA THE SON OF THE GOD OF WATER!" Annabeth screamed.

Percy stopped. He popped up. "Oh yeah!"

He pointed to the bathroom in her room and made the sink explode, water gushing everywhere. Arri screamed and leapt away as though it was acid rather than H20. The flames were doused quickly, leaving only ashes and soot behind.

Annabeth stood up, shaky, and then slapped his arm. "That was for being so stupid." Then she leaned in and kissed him. "And that's for doing one of the bravest and sweetest things ever."

"_Percy and Annabeth, sitting in a tree,_" Joker sang from the doorway. Annabeth's screaming had brought Frank, Joker, and Hazel there. She guessed Seventh was somewhere, brooding. She had no idea where Lover would be and didn't know what Jason was doing.

"Shut up, Joker," Percy said with a roll of his eyes, and then went to pick up cowering Arri by the collar of his shirt. "What the Hades do you think you were doing?"

He looked up, eyes squinted. He smiled quite pleasantly. "I just like _fire_."

"You're sick," Hazel said, shaking. She had heard Annabeth scream and then come racing down, Seventh fading somewhere into the background.

He winked at her. "Au contraire, Witch girl. Arson is a wonderful pastime when the person has the guts and power."

"Stop calling me that!" she snapped. "And I don't care about the amazingness of crime and fire, thank you very much."

"Where are the others?" Annabeth asked as she picker herself out of the room. "I thought the commotion would have gotten them down here pronto."

"Well, Jason's _tied up_ at the moment," Joker said with a giggle. He was obviously hinting at something.

"What did you do?" Frank demanded, annoyed. He didn't like any of the Leos. They were depressing, mean, cruel, or annoying. The Leo altogether was better.

"I might have played a teeny-weeny prank on Captain McSparky Pants," he said airily, wiggling his eyebrows in a comical way. "Talking about where someone is, where's Lover?"

"He was just behind me!" Frank exclaimed, whirling around. Of course he was not there. "Dang it!"

"Don't be bringing out the 'golly-gees,' Chinese-Canadian Baby Man," Joker said with a roll of his eyes.

"First of all, that's the worst nickname I have ever heard," Frank shot back at him. "Second of all, I said dang it because if he's not here, he's obviously with Piper. And with his evil love magic or whatever, that's not good."

"Well, what can you do about it? It's a sin that we're all so good looking," Joker said, dramatically brushing the crazy hair out of his face.

"Whatever, I'm going to go help her," Hazel said. "Seventh should be somewhere here. Find him for me, please."

"Fighter's decapitating every single practice dummy we have in the fighting dojo," Percy reported, still holding Leo an inch off of the ground by the cuff of his shirt. "It'll keep him busy for a while. But what do we do about this one?"

"I say we toss him in the soggy brig," Annabeth said, putting a singed lock of hair behind one ear. She glared at him with stormy gray eyes and he just sneered back.

She didn't like the look in his eyes. He was reckless, a wildcard. It would be hard to keep him in check.

"We have a brig?' Percy asked as they began walking up the stairs. "How many rooms do we have on this thing?"

"The question you _should _be asking, Mermaid Princess Seaweed Brain Majesty," Joker said as he skipped happily next to them, "is what did Maker _not _design on this ship?"

"Did anyone ever tell you your nicknames are way too long and annoying?" Percy said with a frown. "And shouldn't you be doing something useful?"

"You're right!" he tapped his temple. "The pranks on this ship aren't going to be pulling themselves. Thanks for reminding me, Ariel." He bounced away.

"MY NAME IS NOT ARIEL." Percy shook his head. "That kid is like a rabbit with too much caffeine and sugar."

"I can walk, you know," Arri said, annoyed, as his feet dangled over the deck. "I'm not going to be running away. That's stupid Seventh's job."

"I don't trust you in any way, so I'll be keeping you an inch off the ground until we get to that soggy and inflammable brig." He unbuckled Arri's tool belt. "And I'll be taking this because I know what Leo can do if given enough rubber bands and pipe cleaners."

Arri rolled his eyes. "You might as well. None of us can make a thing besides Joker and that's only to pull the occasional prank or two."

They reached the brig. Percy opened the door and a strong scent of rotting fish and moldy wood greeted them. He threw Arri in. But when the short boy with the black eyes got to his feet in the knee-high water, he turned and then smiled at Percy, a sneer, really.

"This isn't going to be the end of me," he said loftily, although he was the one in the brig and Percy was the one closing the door. "You'll see more of my fires soon, water boy. And when you do, see if you can douse them as easily."

"I'll take my chances," he retorted, and slammed the door angrily.

* * *

"Piper!" Lover sang as he burst into the girl's room. "Have you realized yet we were meant to be?!"  
She looked up from comforting Mourner who was still sobbing his eyes out. He seemed to be telling her his life story.

"And then the puppy jumped on me and bit me because it hated me and then it stole my donut and ran away!" he wailed. "Everyone leaves me in the end, you know? Even you did, a ton of times, just so you could eat away at Jason's face! We met each other in detention, Pipes, and I gave you my notebook to doodle on and you wrote back that Coach Hedge should get high heeled boots and then we decided we would be BFFs!"

"Oh, why eat away at Jason's face?" Lover said as he rushed into the room and grabbed Piper's hand. The touch sent electrical shivers up her arm that only happened around Jason. "You would always have me there, my beautiful Piper."

"Uhhhhh…" she said as she tried to pull away. Her stupid hand wouldn't listen.

Here was one guy sobbing at every horrible thing in his life and then the same guy was on her other side, staring into her eyes with the most adorable adoration and making her feel like a bottle of Medea's love potion.

"You know we were first," Lover whispered as he leaned in closer, chocolaty brown eyes gleaming like the most beautiful garnet jewels in the world.

The one doubt wriggling in Piper's mind was beginning to fuzz over as he leaned in closer. He smelled like pine and ginger. Ginger. Jason had once said he liked ginger. Jason. Jason…

"I'M WITH JASON!" Piper screeched and slapped Lover away with all the strength she had in her body.

Her cheeks burned with embarrassment and she took in deep breaths through her nose. Lover stood up, rubbing the red spot on his cheek and then he grinned cutely before patting her cheek affectionately.

"Ah well, third time will be the charm, my dove," Lover said wistfully, and then walked out of the room, brushing the curls from his eyes.

"I am thinking that _katoptris_ might be able to actually stab someone," Piper mumbled.

Mourner trembled, tears leaking from his eyes. It was so _weird _to see Leo like this. "And now you're talking about stabbing me! Why is this world so c-c-cruel?"

"Oh, Mourner," Piper said exasperatedly. "I didn't mean it like that, I just—"

"I never wanted to be like this, strange and different from everyone," Mourner sobbed. "This was just like the time my ice cream cone slipped from my hand and…"

* * *

"Grace, what are you doing in the dining room cupboard?" Percy asked, puzzled. He had opened the door to pull out a plate when instead all he got was a person.

Jason was tied with so much rope that he looked like some sort of fiber-y cocoon. He had a golden bandana shoved into his mouth. Electricity crackled in every pore of his body but the ropes still held.

"Fine, I'll cut you out," Percy said with a smirk. He took out Riptide and slashed it at the bonds which unraveled.

Jason stood up and ripped the gag out of his mouth. "_Thanks_. What gave you the idea that I wanted to be released from being the rope caterpillar?"

"I'm just ingenious like that," he said proudly, not the least bit sarcastic.

"You know he was kidding, right?" said a voice from behind him.

"AAAH!" Percy screamed and jumped into Jason's arms. He wrapped his arms around his neck and stared at Nico di Angelo. "Nico! When did you get here?"

Jason grunted. "Get off, dude." He dropped the son of Poseidon onto the ground.

He scrambled up and greeted Nico with a big hug, not realizing how awkward Nico di Angelo was feeling. "Gods, how was the journey? How are you back?"

"My dad helped me shadow travel," Nico mumbled, not meeting Percy's eye. "The gods are getting their act together but they're still kind of out of order."

Lover, of course, was the first one into the room. He walked like he was in a KidzBop commercial and reached for an apple with the grace a ballerina would put in a routine. He picked it up and was about to bite into it when he saw Nico. "Hello."

Nico frowned. "Why is your hair longer? And neater? And curlier? And why are you taller? And why are you neat? What _happened_ to you?"

Lover smiled and put a hand on Nico's back. The contact made Nico feel very strange. Something similar to what he felt as a child when Percy battled that manticore for the first time. He pushed the thought from his head.

"Well, many questions. How about I give you another tour on the boat? And I'll explain a few things that have happened. You can tell me how you got here."

Nico raised an eyebrow at the contact and the new ease with which Leo talked to him with, but let Leo steer him away nonetheless. Jason caught the gleam in Lover's eyes though.

"Uh…" Jason blinked. "Do you think Lover's…bi?"

Percy shrugged. "Nah. Nico doesn't swing that way either."

Jason Grace took in a deep breath. "Jackson, I am going to say this with absolute honesty. You may just be the densest person I have _ever _met. And that includes me."

"What do you mean?"

Jason groaned in annoyance and stomped off to make sure Lover would keep his hands to himself and maybe fill Nico in on what was really happening.

* * *

Nico shuffled behind Leo into the hallway, feeling slightly wary. Leo was acting kind of weird. Like he wasn't Leo. He kept on throwing side glances at him and then looking forward nervously. Valdez walked around the ship, filled him in on bits and pieces. Then he went into his cabin room, for some reason.

He sat down on the comforter and stretched down. He smiled and suddenly, the room got a lot warmer for Nico's liking.

"So, how've you been, di Angelo?" he asked, looking up from behind his full lashes.

Nico's eyes flickered around the room. Everything was brightly lit. D***, that meant no shadow travel. The window was locked, and anyway, that lead into the ocean. The door was the only way, then, but the door was right next to the bed and he wanted to get no nearer to Leo when he was acting this strange.

"Busy," he said. "I almost died once or twice, but then the statue got there okay and the peace was won between the camps."

"Cool," Leo said. He sat up and then stood before taking a step nearer to Nico. Said son of Hades backed up a step and then his back touched the wall. Cornered. Double d***. "I never really realized how much I missed you, ya know."

"Uh, thanks?" Getting really awkward now. "I missed you all too. A lot more when a bunch of Cyclopes cornered us in Montreal. By the way, they make really good poutine down there."

He was rambling now, but he felt like silence would be more dangerous.

"I'm keeping this place nice and bright for a reason, you know," Leo said slowly, taking another step forward. "I have…at least, a part of me has a lot of experience with running away, and I need to keep you here."

"Why?" Nico squeaked.

Could he make it to the door should he need to?

"Because I wouldn't be able to tell you some things if you left to early," he said softly, and put one hand on the wall besides Nico's face. He wouldn't be able to escape. Triple d***. "Like the fact that I really like you."

What could one say to that?

Then Leo leaned in and kissed him.

Nico stopped breathing and was close to passing out but only hatred and shame kept him tethered to the world. He hated himself. He was ashamed that he _liked _this.

"_What _is going on?" a voice snarled from the doorway.

They both turned. Nico blinked once. There was…another Leo in the doorway. But this guy had more scuffed clothes and seven knives strapped around his body. His brown eyes burned.

"You _freak_," he hissed, and Nico felt like crumbling into skeleton dust in his boots and dying. He had feared that the moment his secret was out, that word would crop up.

But Leo 2 wasn't looking at him. He was looking at Leo 1. He stomped forward and stabbed the wall two inches away from Leo 1's face and leaned in close to his face. "Just _what _are you doing, you little freak of nature."

"It's not my fault you're jealous, Fighter," Leo 1 said with a lofty grin on his face. His arms was crossed over his chest as he looked down at—Fighter's?—face. "Missing out on the lip action as always. I can't help you there, I'm not a Narcissus."

Another knife went _thunk_ into the wall. "I don't want any of that gross face eating business, you little [insert a bunch of mean and inappropriate words.]"

"Has anyone ever told you that you need therapy?" Leo 1 asked with a sneer.

Nico finally snapped back into consciousness at this point. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait! What's—" Neither of them turned to listen nor stopped fighting. "SHUT UP!"

Amazingly, it worked. They both turned with skeptically raised eyebrows. "What do _you _have to say, you [insert derogatory word here.]"

"Why are there two of you?" he asked desperately. "Why'd he just…me?"

"You mean kiss?" Leo asked. "Well, one, because I like you. Two, you don't have to be so awkward around it. I know you liked it to." He threw in—_the nerve of him—_a wink as he said it.

Nico grabbed his sword and leveled it at Leo 1's throat. "I did not. Are you implying something, Valdez? Because I will send you down to the Fields of Punishment in one more breath if you are."

"Oh, don't be like that," he said softly and touched the side of Nico's face, sending down jolts.

"STOP THAT," Nico yelled, jumping away. He rubbed his temple. A terrible headache was brewing at the base of his skull. "Just-just stop for a second, I have to think."

"Thinking will never get me to fit in with the others of my brood," another voice said quietly.

Nico whirled around to see a third Leo, rubbing his arm sadly in the corner, gray eyes glumly piercing through him.

That was when he snapped and flew out the door. He crashed into someone and fell down to the carpet.

"Ohh," he groaned.

"Sorry 'bout that!" a sickeningly familiar voice said jollily. "I heard I was fighting with me and brought some popcorn for the viewing pleasure. Want one?"

Nico cracked open an eye to see Leo with hair sticking all over the place and promptly passed out.

* * *

**A/N: Hey, everyone! Thanks to all of you awesome folks who reviewed this story. I almost discontinued it, though, after one scathing one accused me of being a terrible author who made a cheap rip-off of a story I have never heard of, and then told me this story sucks and the other one was much more complete and better.**

**Well, haters are going to hate.**

**Also, to ****thein273:**** Thank you for the very long and descriptive way I could make this story better. It was nice that you took that much time to read it over and think of how it could be better. It was nicer than what the anonymous commenter above wrote, who just flat out told me this was terrible.**

**I put the author's note at the very end and tried to make the Point Of View center on one important person at a time. Thanks for the review, maybe you could help me with this one too?**

**To ****Costana, rock legend 166, and HoOisawesome:** **thanks you guys for the positive reviews, those were the ones that kept me writing this thing. Hope you guys liked this one too.**

**I'm probably not going to write every day, but I was bored, this one was short, and I'm in Canada and write these during the off-and-on 3-hour trips.**

**And that hint of Valdangelo was for you fans out there, although I will center on Caleo. No worries, I will also do some Laze moment and Liper moments here and there. Lover isn't much of a commiter, you know.**

**Okay, done rambling. Bye! And wait for the next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Nico came to with the ceiling swimming. He could smell some Gatorade in the background which meant he was in the sickbay. He didn't want to open his eyes and join the crazy demigod world just yet so he stayed as still as, well, death and tried to not make the crisp white sheets tremble.

"What happened?" he heard Hazel demand.

"I don't know, the Death Breath here barreled into me in the hallway and then passed out," one of the many Leos said and then there was the sound of crunching. "I offered him popcorn and _boom_, the guy falls over like I offered him a dead man's hand. Actually, he would have been more comfortable with that, I think."

"Fighter came in and then we started fighting, O Ever Beautiful Hazel," Lover said smoothly, and Nico could feel the heat building in his ears as he imagined him leaning over the bed to peer closely at Nico's face. "And then Seventh pops in, Nico goes nuts, and runs like he was experiencing a Death by the Second experience."

"Did you tell him any of the important stuff, Lover?" Jason said exasperatedly. "Like, oh I don't know, the fact that Leo was torn into his core personalities and that six of his emotions and parts were running around crazy on the deck and one of them was locked in the soggy brig?"

"First of all, why do you guys keep on saying 'soggy' brig?" he asked. "Second of all, we were a bit preoccupied. We had something more important to…discuss."

The room swirled around Nico a little bit more and his ears felt like they were on fire. If he elaborated a bit more in there 'discussion,' Nico might have to throw himself off of the side of the boat.

"Yeah," a voice that sounded like Fighter snorted. "Real important. I think that was part of the reason you traumatized him, you romantic fool. I walk in, wanting to find you so I could practice my knife throwing with a moving object, and there you two were, k—"

Nico _really _didn't want to wake up but if he didn't, he would have to find an excuse to hobble up to the deck, bear the disgusted looks by the other demigods, and then throw his body off the side of the hull and then hope he landed on the cement.

"AAAH!" he screamed as he pretended to jerk awake. Great idea, really.

Hazel was too happy to see him up than question the fact that the timing was more accurate and convenient than the events of the movie 2012. "Nico, you're awake! Thank gods!"

She hugged him and then sniffled a little into his shoulder before standing up. "I'm so glad, I saw you passed out on the hallway, pale and muttering, a-and I thought—"

"No worries, even if he was, someone will have been more than willing to give him the Kiss of Life," Seventh muttered, eyes unfocused and a million miles away.

"The kiss of what now?" Annabeth asked, surprised. "And who would that have been?"

Nico felt like the world was swirling around him. What was he, a double-swirl chocolate ice cream cone? But the world was going to end soon he could feel it. He couldn't stop them talking without drawing attention. He couldn't even look up in case he made eye contact with Percy and it showed.

"Oh, I'm just glad you're okay too," Lover said, putting his arms around Nico.

"MOTHER OF MERCY!" Nico shrieked like a little girl and then toppled off the side of the bed, pushing Lover away as though he was some sort of slobbering mud monster instead of probably the cutest boy on board. "PIACCA MIO CAREA!"

"What?" Percy asked, looking from Nico to Lover to Nico to Annabeth.

Nico swallowed, too sick to grin sheepishly. "I…I curse in Italian sometimes when I'm really freaked out."

"No, not that," Percy said dismissively. "Although that deserves an investigation in itself. No, I'm asking about that little _hug_. What _was _that?"

Frank's ears were red. "Was that…?"

Nico was shaking now. "NO! Just STOP it, okay?!"

He looked at his sister who was staring as well, brow furrowed as the puzzle pieces were slowly coming together… Then he snapped and sprinted out of the room and out onto the deck. Nobody pursued him. Lover would probably blab and then he would have to kill himself and then he would forever be a shame to his father and Persephone would call all her important underworld friends and make fun of him…

But where would he go if he died? Being gay…wasn't that a sin all on its own? Nico felt like crumpling into a little ball and crying but he wasn't that weak. Not yet strong enough to meet anybody else yet, though. Where could he go?

Somewhere secluded. Maybe the engine room?

He climbed the stairs and then opened the door. As soon as he did, however, a wrench flew from the gloomy darkness from within and struck the wall near his face, leaving an indent.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!" someone roared from the inside. "DON'T DISTURB ME **_WHEN I WORK!_**"

"Sorry, I just wanted a place to sit," Nico squeaked. What the Hades was up with all these Leos? He'd heard of multiple personality disorder but this was taking it to the next level.

The next Leo appeared and viewed Nico with a reproachful glare. His hair was held back from his eyes by a pair of welding goggles. His clothes were messy and smeared with all the different kinds of liquids you could find in a machine shop. His arm was well muscled and soot was everywhere. And the best thing was, he looked like regular Leo, the Leo Nico had no attraction for whatsoever.

"Fine," this Leo spat. "But no talking or moving or touching anything."

Fine by Nico. He spent most of his time on the Argo II on top of the mast with nothing to do but think so this wouldn't be too far from that. And the inside was nice and dark, so that was an added bonus.

He slipped inside and sat down on a bench next to a saw that was as big as he was and looked around. The room was cluttered with half a dozen half-finished inventions and automatons. The one nicely lit spot was the worktable with a bright blue lamp overlooking everything. So far, all that was on it was a beautifully sketched bunny and it's almost completed automaton on the desk. Its backside was split open so you could see the inside of gears and pistons.

"Cool," Nico croaked as he looked at it.

Leo glared at him. "No questions. No comments. No nothing. Or else you go out, am I clear?!"

"Crystal," Nico answered coolly. "Just one more question. What's your name? All the other Leos seem to have nicknames like Seventh, Fighter…" he purposely left out Lover.

"Maker," he growled. "Now can I have peace or do you have an intention of turning this into the Greeters Club?"

Nico motioned with his hands to sign at Maker to keep on building. Maker huffed and then put on some work gloves before reaching for tweezers and the smallest screwdriver Nico had ever seen.

He twisted and tinkered with the insides of the rabbit for what seemed like an hour before reaching for a slab of Celestial Bronze. He took out a small flamethrower and slapped his welding goggles on before blasting it and waiting for it to glow brighter.

The son of Hades watched everything without moving an inch. He felt like he was discovering something off here.

Then Maker took a hammer and banged at the bronze before using two large tweezers to make necessary adjustments. That's when Nico got it.

"Why are you using those?" he rasped.

Maker stopped everything and dropped his tools onto the work table. The bronze clattered noisily and bent into a preposterous shape. He turned with deadly calm and took off his goggles to show that underneath, his eyes were smoldering worse than Arri's, and that guy's eyes actually smoldered.

"You talked," he said quietly. "You asked a question."

Nico squirmed a bit. "Yeah, but I was just curious—"

That was when the first screwdriver sank into the wall not one inch away from Nico's left ear. Maker leaned in close.

"I. Have. Spent. My. Entire. _Life_. Trapped. Now. I'm. Free." He sank another screwdriver near Nico's right ear. "Those other idiots were _always _bugging me. Oh, Jason and Piper left me again. 'You should go bring out a power saw and chase them with it to show them not to leave you.' '_Burn _them.' 'Break down and cry.' 'Run away.' 'Crack a few jokes.' 'Get your own girlfriend and show them you can live without them.'

"But do you think I _honestly _care about that stuff? All I want is to build with my own two hands and let my mom and dad live through the things I have built. I finally have those distractions out and if you're here to give me _more _distractions, well, I have no problem pulling a Fighter. Capiche?"

Nico gulped and then nodded fiercely. Maker rolled his eyes and then walked away, stumbling once like he was blind. He clicked a button on the work table desk's surface and a mechanical hand brought out a steamy cup of coffee in an instant. He pressed it again and another cup of coffee was brought out. He offered it Nico grudgingly.

He accepted it and took a small sip. "While we're taking a small coffee break, can you answer my questions?"

Maker sighed. "Fine."

"Why are you using those tools?' Nico asked, gesturing to his gloves and flamethrower. "Can't you use those fire powers of yours?"

He frowned. "I wish. Only Arri can use them."

"Arri?"

"You didn't meet him yet? Lucky you," Maker snorted. "Arri's short for Arsonist, which is what every son of Hephaestus turns out to be when given those powers. Mourner's early, terrible experience with fire and his mindset somehow balanced out the curse.

"Technically speaking, I suppose he's not really Leo. He's not a good guy though. I heard they locked him in a brig, which is good. I knew the soggy brig would come in handy one day."

Nico made a face. "Why do you guys keep on calling it the soggy brig? I think we understand it's soggy."  
"No, SOGGY, a Seriously Outstanding Gargantualy Great Yellow brig." Maker shrugged. "I wanted to paint it yellow. You would be able to tell but I also designed it to be like a real brig, with water and mold everywhere. It works, though."

"Ah, now it makes sense."

"Can I get back to work now or are you going to prove to be a bad distraction?"

Nico took a silent slurp and gestured towards the worktable. Maker drained his cup and shuddered as the caffeine washed his veins again and went to work on that annoying sheet of bronze.

Suddenly, the door was flung open and Frank was there. Maker threw a wrench at him with a glare but Frank ducked quickly enough though he still looked shaken.

"We found something out," he said breathlessly.

Nico knew his life was over. Done. Nothing left. Percy probably hated him now.

Maker glanced at his acquaintance and then stood up very slowly. He swung a 3 pound hammer threateningly and said softly, "You are a distraction."

"What-what?"

"How many times so I have to say it?" Maker glared. "DON'T BOTHER ME **_WHEN I WORK!_**_"_

* * *

Annabeth rubbed her head. Nico had just run out and there was a nagging suspicion that told her something huge was happening. "Lover, what did you do?"

He grinned. "Aw, Annie, no worries, he and I are just friends."

Mourner stumbled into the sickbay, wiping at his tears. "T-There you are, Piper. You heard the scream and left me to my own."

Piper clutched Jason's hand. "This guy has _so _many problems. I've worked through my potential guilt by now, I think. Your turn, Jason."

"No, I'm not really the comforting type," Jason said nervously, backing a step away. "Children of Jupiter rarely are. You've seen my sister."

Lover shook his head and let out a gusty sigh. "Ah well, it falls to me."

He leaned down and took Mourner's hand. "There, there, come sit on the bed."

Lover led the sniveling boy onto the bed and sat him down. They held hands as he listened to Mourner blubber about how empty he had felt when he was alone, like he had become one with Seventh.

"It's okay, it'll all turn out better in the—" suddenly, his chocolaty brown eyes became slightly watery. His clothes hung more raggedly. He slouched a bit.

Mourner sat up. His eyes became more alive. His clothes shifted to fit him a tad better. He was still crying, but Lover was crying now too.

"I miss Khione!" Lover howled. "Opposites a-attract so we would have been soul mates, but she h-h_-hates _me and I love her!"

"And Thalia, she's gorgeous, but she's off limits and she's Jason's sister and I can't go there, it's forbidden territory!" Mourner looked at Jason pointedly. "Not to mention she thinks I'm some gross tinkering fire boy."

"Hazel, why did you have to go for Zhang?" Lover wailed. "I'm _obviously _your second-chance Sammy, we could have been happy together! The Fates had a second set of string, me, to weave your future with!"

Hazel blushed. Frank was so appalled and confused that he didn't even know what to say. Annabeth stared, jaw slack in shock. Then she gasped and clapped her hands like she had made the discovery of the century.

"Oh my gods!" she said. "This is the first time any of you guys have done long term physical contact. Doesn't that mean that that must be the answer? All seven of you have to hold hands!"

"Calypso," Mourner-or was it Lover? It was hard to tell now-sobbed. "I should never have left her on that island. I'm a terrible person. We could have had a future together, and be happy on that island, but I _left _her. I m-miss her so much."

Percy paled. "Did he just say…Calypso?"

"I saw her in my five days of exile," Lover or Mourner choked out. They were hugging each other now, sobbing into each other's shoulders. "She was the most beautiful thing ever, a goddess in more ways than one, and I _left _her. How stupid am I?"

Both Fighter and Joker opened their mouths to give them their respective answers but shut up when Annabeth gave them one of her _scary _glares.

"That's great, but we have to get Leo together pronto," Annabeth said. "So I'll go get Arri. Frank, go run up and get Maker."

Frank nodded and ran to the engine room where he had heard hammering from his cabin when he had briefly talked with Lover. Annabeth was all set to take off too but Percy put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, Annabeth, first let's test out your theory," he said gently. "I have this feeling that it's not going to be as easy as lining them all up and getting them to hold hands like we're at some bonding experience. Demigod business is _never _that easy. Why don't we get Fighter and Joker to do what they can first?"

She sagged. "Fine. You forgot about Seventh, Percy."

He winced. "Dang it, I always do. But that dude's presence just kinda fades in my head. It's like he's there for one second and then gone."

"He's built like that," Joker said. "Don't feel bad."

He bounded over to his other selves and slung a hand around Lover—or was it Mourner? "Okay, so I just gotta be like this for a few seconds and I join the parade?"

Annabeth exchanged a glance with Percy. It wasn't a too confident look. "I think so, yeah."

He sat down and hummed "Happy" by Pharrel Williams and looked at the ceiling. After a minute, he grew bored and took out a camera to video tape Mourner and Lover grieving over poor Calypso and their terrible selves. He caught Piper's stare.

"I can sell this for twenty drachmas to the Stolls, Beauty Queen," he said cheekily. "If I find this hilarious, and this is literally me we're talking about, the Stolls are going to go hysterical."

"Let's see if you still think that when we get you together," Annabeth muttered. Then she massaged her temples one more time to keep that terrible migraine at bay and said, "You can stop now. I don't think it's working. Maybe there's a special kind of combination. If that's right, we only have forty-three possibilities."

"Or maybe you guys have to be formatted in a special way," Jason suggested.

Hazel sighed. "Anyhow, you guys are going to be separated for a while."

Seventh spoke up. Everybody jumped. He was quieter than Nico di Angelo when he wanted to be.

"I'll go to the top of the mast so no one has to see me," he said softly and drifted from the room like a lost ghost. "I know no one cares or wants to make eye contact.

Annabeth sighed. Poor guy. She wanted to give him a hug but she knew it was physically impossible, as Hazel had demonstrated earlier.

"Well, it's almost time for dinner," she said weakly. "Why don't we take an hour for a break and meet in the dining pavilion?"

Everybody, including all four present Leos, nodded. That was before Frank came stumbling in, holding a hand over a black eye. Hazel shrieked a little when she saw him.

"Frank, what happened?" she asked as she rushed over to her boyfriend and peeked at the ugly black wound.

"Don't bother Maker when he makes," he said weakly, and collapsed on the nearest bed.

"Well, besides that, what can go wrong?" Joker said teasingly, poking the mourning Lover or the lovesick Mourner.

"NO!" everybody screamed.

Just then, Festus whirred an alarm. They all looked up and Fighter gave them a huge smile before grabbing a knife. "Hades yeah! Some action finally!"

"What did he say?" Piper asked.

"We're under attack!" Fighter said as a child would say, "Christmas came early!"

The demigods threw each other exasperated looks before they all sprang into action, save for Frank who Hazel forced to lie down. Mourner and Lover were forced to pull their hands apart by Fighter.

"Time to do what I do best, losers," he hissed as he pulled them apart. Mourner sagged, Lover went back to looking calm and collected, not to mention really good also.

"Of course," Lover said with a smile. He winked at Hazel and Piper. "Time to see how we do things."

Then all four remaining Leos jumped up and raced up the stairs. The other demigods looked at each other and shrugged desperately before running after them.

* * *

It was harpies.

Hazel and Percy both hesitated, instantly remembering Ella, when Fighter gave a maniacal laugh and climbed a mast and jumped on a vomit-yellow harpy. She squawked and fell, beating her wings as hard as she could.

"MWAHAHAHAHA!" he screamed happily before stabbing her in the back. "Happy, happy, joy, joy!"

"Remind me to get Leo a therapist for Christmas!" Percy screamed at Piper as he slashed a harpy spiraling in a descent.

"I'm thinking to get him one, actually!" Piper screeched back before slashing her knife at a green harpy colored with red feathers and looking like a parrot.

One harpy flew down to sink her talons into Seventh's neck. He was standing on the mast, like a beacon for all monsters, viewing the scene with no emotion. Piper whirled around to see her first. "Seventh!"

He turned around slowly; shoulders limp as though all defiance had been beaten out of him with a metal rod. He opened his palms as though to say, "Kill me already." But his eyes were so dark and melancholy, the harpy froze midair. This gloomy creature was so miserable and dead already.

Then she resumed her attack, but when she came in close, she passed right through Seventh as though he was some sort of ghost.

"I will always be the outsider," he whispered. "I am the seventh wheel. I will never find my place among my brethren. I am not where you think I am."

The harpy turned in the air and struck again but this time, Seventh raced to the end of the mast in a second and lunged, grabbing the harpy's throat.

"Run away while you can," he whispered urgently into her serpent eyes. Then he dropped her.

Lover was dramatically sparring with a very fair blonde harpy with bright yellow wings. "Alas, you're a monster and I'm a hero! Our love can never be, fair lady!"

"LOVER, STAB HER ALREADY!" Jason screamed as he jabbed at a red harpy that looked like Ella.

"YOU'RE RUINING THE MOMENT," he yelled right back but moved in to make a quick slash down the length of her arm nonetheless.

Hazel ducked as a harpy swooped and ran the side of her blade down the harpy's stomach. She exploded into dust and left Hazel as a monster-powder dusted donut on the deck.

Mourner was surrounded by four or so harpies who were inching their way closer, wary for any weapons. He was crying into his hand and trembling.

"Just kill me, there's nothing left, I'm _always _alone!" he screamed at the harpies and he crumpled to the deck.

Annabeth tried to go and help him but a blue harpy stopped her and raised her talons, hissing.

"YA-HOO!" Joker screamed as he jumped from the top of the boat with some kind of parachute around his shoulders. He alighted on the deck and stabbed one of the harpies at the base of her neck with a screwdriver.

She exploded into yellow dust and Joker raced forward, braining the cursed women one by one. Mourner shuddered. Joker smiled and offered him a hand up.

"Thanks for covering me," Mourner said in a quavering voice.

"Oh, Mourner, I've been covering you since the beginning," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "Use an ice picker or a screw driver and aim for the nerve cluster; it's funny to see them explode like this!"

"Has anyone ever told you not to trust Leo with sharp objects?" Percy yelled at Piper again as he ran through one winged lady with Riptide.

"The question that would be easier asking—" Piper ducked as one harpy swooped down, deadly sharp chicken feet outstretched, "—is who neglected to tell me not to trust Leo with sharp objects?!"

"I hate to break the bonding time but we're kind of, oh, UNDER ATTACK!" Annabeth screamed.

She screamed this just as Hazel shrieked and thirty harpies simultaneously wailed. Thus was the loudest sound ever conceived on the Argo II.

Nico burst through the door, nuts and bolts stuck in his locks. He looked somewhat nervous. "SHUT UP!"

All the harpies and demigods stopped to look at him. "H-He's getting ticked…"

One harpy accidently let loose a squawk when Percy accidentally pressed his sword into her thigh a bit too forcefully.

"**_THAT'S IT!_**" someone screamed from below the deck. Each stomp echoed and rang in the hallway as he trudged up the stairs. For some reason, every step made Piper's stomach sink lower. "ONE DAY, ALL I ASK FOR IS **_ONE DAY _**OF PEACEFUL WORK WITH NO INTERRUPTIONS. BUT DOES ANYONE LISTEN?! **_NO!_**"

Maker stopped at the door and glared at everyone so ferociously, even Fighter stopped moving and paled a bit. "I am so SICK of all these DISTRACTIONS. Even when we're apart, you FOOLS KEEP ON _BUGGING _ME!"

He stepped from the doorway, crossed his arms, and gave them all a dirty look. "Get 'em, my boys."

Boys?

That's when all Hades broke loose.

Automatons of all sorts, griffins, deer, bears, elephants, miniature dragons, and rabbits leaped from the doorway like some sort of mechanical menagerie and raced to the monsters. Then they all turned into weapons.

The griffins' talons and beaks elongated and honed themselves to a deadly edge. The bucks had their horns grow large and angular so the prongs were like multiple knives on their head. The bears made robot noises as they stood up and revealed an arsenal of cannons and machine guns attached to their stomachs.

The elephants had their noses turned into missile launchers and the miniature dragons blew huge flames. The rabbits sat on their haunches and opened their mouths to show that their front teeth were two super sharp drills.

Maker went up and put a hand on a bear's flank and then turned to the others, sneering at their shocked expressions. "Allonsy, my creations."

Apparently, that was the magic word because their eyes glowed a brighter red. All the demigods turned and threw themselves for cover but the harpies seemed hypnotized by the red light.

Then the entire starboard exploded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry I haven't posted for so long! I was taking a two nights, three day trip to Washington and my mom wouldn't let me bring my laptop. Ah well, here you go, my fellow PJO and HOO lovers!**

* * *

"I said I was sorry many times already," Maker grumbled defiantly, arms crossed like some spoiled six-year-old.

Percy was really angry at the kid. "That was _way _over the line though. You _destroyed _the entire left side of the boat—"

"Which I will fix!" he finally yelled. "Can I get back to work now?"

"You don't get it!" Annabeth said. "You're reckless. We obviously can't trust you alone in there. So we're going to have you stay here and figure out how to patch you all up into Leo because, frankly, I like him a lot better than all of you."

After the entire starboard went up in ash and smoke, they had lugged all the Leos down under the deck to have a talk to them. Hazel helped Frank hobble out of the sickbay as to join the conversation and give his thoughts.

Maker took out some pipe cleaners and growled, "If you paid attention like me, you would already know the way to 'patch us all up.'"

Annabeth faltered. "Excuse me?"

"I've installed some video cameras ever since the boat was built, I've seen everything that goes on," Maker said. "I've figured it out, I just don't want to be put together and be Leo again. I like being me for who I am."

"If you've figured it out, you've got to tell us!" Hazel said breathlessly. She turned to Lover. "Please, Lover, can't you tell me…?"

"I'd love to, my beautiful Hazel, but I'm afraid I haven't got the slightest idea how to," he said apologetically. He crept his hand into hers and smiled. "I could…help you with something else though."

"I don't think so," Frank interrupted and roughly body-checked Lover against a wall.

"Put the clues together, you're a daughter of Athena, aren't you?" Maker sneered. His eyes were very much annoyed.

Suddenly, Piper spoke up. Her voice was quavering. She had tears in her eyes. "I…I don't get it. I thought I knew Leo like we were best buds but _none _of you are like him. I just don't know _why_ and _who _he is."

Maker pursed his lips, still displeased. "You've seen everything, you just haven't noticed."

"If it helps," Mourner whispered, wiping his eyes, "we're the ingredients. Put us in the c-c-c-"

He stopped as Fighter cracked his knuckles threateningly, glaring. "Some of us don't want to be put together, idiot."

"No offense, but the majority of people who are _not _a Leo really want you guys to be put back into the original," Piper said stoutly.

Fighter grinned in a gnash-your-teeth-together-threateningly way. "You can't put us together if you all are incapacitated."

"There are seven of us and six of you," Nico hissed. "Don't even think about it."

This made Maker pause for a second. "You're right. There's only six of us…_here_."

Percy and Annabeth paled, understanding what he was implying before anyone else did. They both yelled, "Stop him!"

But they reacted too late. Maker took out a remote control from his back pocket and pressed a yellow button that had the letters SB printed on it.

_Soggy Brig, _Piper's shocked brain thought.

Upstairs, there was the ever so quiet creaking of a door opening. Then the sound of slow footsteps descending the stairs. Everybody turned slowly to the stairway and a flickering light grew with each sound of a step.

The suspense was enough to strangle someone. Piper couldn't help but reference this time in life to a horror movie she had once saw.

Only this was much, much worse.

Arri appeared, entire body engulfed in flames. He smiled. "Well, well, well, we meet again."  
Then everybody broke out in a fight.

They all knew who they were fighting. Nico and Piper were back to back fighting Mourner and Joker, respectively. Percy and Arri circled each other, both of their elements swirling around them as soon as Percy had made a sink erupt.

Jason eyed Fighter, being the second most experienced combat specialist, behind only Percy. Fighter unsheathed a huge knife with serrated edge like Jason was a steak in need of some cutting.

Frank wanted to push Lover out of the way from Hazel and wham the guy in the head after turning into a gorilla (he finally had an excuse to) but the dude seemed to always get what he wanted and circled around Hazel, deliberately coming in closer. Frank was stuck with Maker who showed a dart gun made of rubber bands, staples, and safety pins he seemed to have created in five seconds flat.

Annabeth trained her gray hawk eyes on Seventh, not letting him drift out of her line of vision no matter how hard she wanted to turn away and forget him. Not this time. Her architecture brain was a pro at sighting forgotten parts that were important like a neglected column or a screw.

"Hey, beauty queen, wonderful weather we're having!" Joker said with a huge grin and then leapt. He was the first.

Piper's dagger and his screw driver clashed noisily, bronze against metal. "Back off, I don't want to hurt Leo!"

Mourner shook as he resisted the urge to curl into a ball and rock back and forth. "You don't want to hurt Leo? You say that now. After you've hurt him more than you can imagine."

Piper winced. She would have been fine fighting anyone else except perhaps Arri because he kind of scared her, but Mourner knew just what to say to make her feel like trash. Or, when he stared at her with those puffy, crying eyes, Drew. And that was saying something.

"You should pay attention to me," Nico snarled and leapt, brandishing his Stygian iron sword.

"Do it, Mourner!" Joker yelled.

What he was to do, Piper had no idea. She had her hands full at the moment, but she angled herself so she could see what was going on with Nico. When she saw, Joker almost was able to stab her in the forehead with his deadly screwdriver because she was so shocked.

Mourner looked up and then locked his fingers around Nico's neck in full contact mode. The son of Hades gagged when he forced his head up to look into his eyes.

Black, obsidian pools of doom met brown pits of shattered hopes and dreams. The brown eyes won. Nico fell to the ground and convulsed for a second before looking up. His face was so wrenched with hatred, Piper was kinda freaked.

"How did you do that?" he snarled.

"Nico, what—" Piper swiped her dagger at his hand to knock the screwdriver out of Joker's hand and failed, "—did he do?"  
"He just sent a flashback to me," Nico growled loudly. "I just saw…something I didn't want to see."

"Misery loves company," Mourner said in a husky, wavering voice. "It's time you all feel how miserable I feel every single day of my life after my mom died."

Piper already felt like crying. Joker struck again and she ducked. This time, she bent and saw that Percy and Arri were not fighting combat; they were blasting elements at each other. Both were weakening.

Piper's stomach dropped to see that Arri seemed to have the upper hand. Joker laughed and then aimed for her face. She finally was able to rap his knuckles and he dropped it.

Then he got out a squirt bottle and sprayed something that burned like Hades into her eyes like some sort of acidic cat disciplining water gun. She screeched and wheeled back. Then she blindly leapt forward and body slammed into Joker.

He laughed maniacally as they rolled over each other, tumbling. "KO! YEE-HAW!"

She had no idea what he meant but KO until she slammed into a wall and the lights swirled around like someone had stuck a spoon into her vision and mixed everything up.

"Rush, huh?" Joker said in a slurred voice. They both got up and stumbled around, trying to locate each other. They both fell to the ground. "Time-out?"

"Let's watch," Piper managed before she clamped her mouth shut to keep the vomit in her stomach. But the bile was rising like heck.

Mourner kept on getting his hands on Nico and making him writhe with the agony of seeing the worst images of his life ever. Piper wanted to stand up and body slam Mourner from the cries the younger boy was releasing but she could hardly see straight, much less walk.

Maker was shooting staples and safety pins from his tiny makeshift gun at Frank who had turned into a snake and wriggled nearer and nearer until Maker gave up shooting (that was more of Fighter's expertise) and took out some strips of easily bendable metal and made a quick cage.

He trapped Frank but then the Chinese-Canadian boy turned into a gorilla and beat his chest before leaping at Maker.

Piper wanted to murmur, "Can you please not kill him?" But that would not help her no-vomiting strategy. And she didn't have to worry about that part of Leo.

Maker whipped out a miniature cattle prod and stuck it into the middle of Frank's furry back. All that fur helped, but Frank still flopped on deck. He managed to twist in the air and land on top of Maker so the scrawny guy was trapped.

The scent of singed fur was it. Both Joker and Piper turned their heads and was sick all over the floor.

Fighter and Jason were equally matched, it seemed. Fighter was putting his all. Jason was putting in everything he could. Neither seemed worried about killing the other because they were so head to head.

Fighter slashed his saw. Jason slashed his sword. Both perspired.

"Surrender, sea spawn!" Arri hissed in a shockingly serpent-like voice, eyes smoldering like two hot coals.

Annabeth leapt at Seventh again and as she passed by Percy said, "That's a perfect example of alliteration, Seaweed Brain!"

"Not the time, Wise Girl!"

Percy was failing though. His strength was ebbing away slightly as he sent another aquatic bomb at Arsonist's face. Arri burnt it up. Steam was making the room very muggy and almost impossible to see.

"I don't get it," Percy hissed. "Leo isn't that strong."  
Arri cackled and sent another fireball the size of a tea pot at Percy who sent it up in steam. "I've been held back by Maker and those other idiots. Now I'm free to do as I wish, to do as I PLEASE!"

"Well that's rather arrogant!" Hazel screamed as she ran away from Lover. "FRANK, NEED YOUR HELP!"

The son of Mars would have leapt to her aid if he was not unconscious. Maker was slowly turning purple from oxygen-deprivation.

"Hazel, we were meant for each other!" Lover yelled. "Look into my eyes!"

He was just one step below charmspeak, Piper mused deliriously. Maybe he's more of my brother than I thought.

Hazel grit her teeth and whirled back, _spatha _ready to hit him or run him through the moment he began to flirt. But he didn't open his mouth or said a word.

He swooped in, grabbed Hazel by her face between his two hands, and kissed her full on the mouth. Hazel's shocked, involuntary moan caught everyone's attention.

"Oh. Snap." Joker managed before stopping and putting a weak hand to his forehead.

Arri just blinked. "Gross."

Fighter yelled and abandoned his fight with Jason to grab Lover's collar and force him away from Hazel whose eyes were fuzzy and cloudy. "You IDIOT!"

"I only gave her what she wanted," Lover said quietly.

Fighter just glared. "I've been keeping you in check since the moment you became a core part. Now you're just running around, causing havoc and romance wherever you go. Don't you know a single thing about loyalty? What about that girl on the island?"

"What girl on the island?" Annabeth said. "What is going on?"

Percy wiped a hand across his forehead. "Yeah. Calypso. On his five days of exile, Leo was blasted by Khione to Calypso's forbidden island."

"Eyes are there to stray," Lover said absently.

Fighter roared and seemed about to punch Lover in the face when they both stopped everything and drooped.

Annabeth took in a breath. Piper's foggy brain could also piece it together slightly. It was there. A clue. Lover and Fighter matched just like Lover and Mourner did as well.

"Uh…guys?" she moaned from the wall. "What happened?"

Lover looked up. His hair was slightly messier and his clothes were more scuffed. Add some grease smears and he would have been identical to the original Leo. Fighter looked like Lover's carbon copy.

"We've switched," they said in unison.

Who they presumed was Fighter laughed softly. "So this is how switching feels like. Your entire aspect really… flips around."  
Hazel blinked to clear her eyes of the fogginess. "What happens when love and fight comes together? Can someone please tell me if they're on our side or not?!"

"Of course not, witch," Arri said nervously. His flames flickered. "They're Leos of course they're going with us."

Lover smiled. "I'm afraid not, Arsonist. When you put love and fight together, it makes loyalty. We fight for who we love. And I love Calypso."

Piper would have squealed with delight if she wasn't so dizzy.

Fighter smiled too. "The best way to rescue her would be to win and get the gods to undo her curse. The only way to do that is if the gods win this war. We're siding with the others."

Arri grinded his teeth and his flames burst a foot taller. Percy scrambled back warily, moving so he was in front of Annabeth. "You fools. You could have come with me and we would have ruled every land we stepped on with my plan. But now you've gone and ruined it."

"The best way to win is if you two tell us how to get Leo back together," Annabeth said. "Who holds hand with whom?"

"Whom? Really Annabeth?" Percy mumbled from the side of his mouth.

"Just because this is a demigod survival quest is no excuse for rudeness, Seaweed Brain," she hissed right back.

"We don't hold hands, we go in a format, a grouping with special places," Fighter explained. "Lover, Mourner, and I make contact in the back. In front of us is—"

"Wait," Maker finally choked as he crawled his way from under Frank. He dusted himself off and popped up. "We don't want to go back, you guys do. How about we make a compromise."

"How do we make a compromise of this?" Hazel snapped.

He smiled. "I gave you time to get used to all of us. You figure out the format we belong in without the help of Lover and Fighter. If it's correct, I swear upon the River Styx I will go back to being a full Leo with no complaint or trouble. We just need the others to swear. Arri?"

Arri hesitated and then nodded with a sneer. "That's fair. I swear upon the River Styx."

"We like it to," Lover said after a moment. "We do want to know if Leo can trust being with you all. I swear upon the River Styx."

"I swear upon the River Styx," Fighter said. He looked pointedly at the other Leos.

All the others chorused, "I swear upon the River Styx."

"Good, I swear upon the—" Percy began. Annabeth stopped him and then squinted at Maker. "And if we fail?"

Arri stepped up. "That's for me to decide. If you fail to tell us how we belong by midnight tonight, we have the right to be who we are and stay who we are. And you guys surrender the Argo II."  
Piper could feel bile rising in her throat again but she stumbled to her feet, hugging the wall. "A-And what are you going to do if we surrender the Argo II?"

He held up one finger and it burst into fire like a candle. "I want to go to the side of the war that gives us more fire," Another finger went up, "more destruction," three fingers flamed, "and more blood." He smiled, lips curling into a cruel showing of teeth. He smashed his fingers into a fist and it was engulfed in flames. "We join Gaea."

Annabeth glared. "No. We're not risking that."

Maker chuckled dryly, eyebrows furrowed. "Then we go to plan B. We all fight. Some of us will die. Then _nobody _will be able to get Leo back to who he was. The others will fade to nothing if one of us is gone. Leo will cease to exist. And it _will _take seven demigods of the prophecy to make even the smallest stand against Mother Earth."

"You are disgusting," Jason snarled.

Maker and Arri high-fived each other and turned. Then they said together like they've been practicing, "Come on, Mourner, Joker, Seventh. We'll be waiting for you in our cabins. Call us when you know what formation to be in."


	5. Chapter 5

"Lover, Fighter, you two can let go for now, I get holding hands is getting kind of uncomfortable," Frank said wearily, rubbing his temples.

"Oh, okay," they said together and released.

Lover immediately leapt to Annabeth's side and nuzzled her head with his cheek. "Oh, Annabeth Chase, your wisdom is the least stunning thing you have to offer me. I love you."

Percy knew Leo was insane. He knew he was not in his right mind. He knew Annabeth had no attraction to the dorky mechanic whatsoever. But his fingers still twitched to reach Riptide. Annabeth saw his frustration and giggled.

Then Lover moved his head to kiss her and Annabeth gave a small yelp. He was moving way too fast.

Percy was faster. He grabbed Lover by the cuff of his shirt and yanked him back, then two inches off of the ground so they were nose-to-nose. "Lover, if you _love _your life, you will remain five meters away from Annabeth for the rest of the time you remain apart from the others."

Lover stared and then nodded quickly. There were just some lines you cannot cross. (That was for you, catsrawesome.)

"I can't believe how stupid I was," Fighter growled. "Of course Arri is right, there's just no other way to do it! ATTACK!"

Fighter grabbed an ice pick from his tool belt and jumped to impale it into Jason's skull but Frank the gorilla grabbed him, then Lover, and forced the two together. (They had refrained from telling him what had happened between Lover and Hazel, or he might have done simply more than knock Lover's skull a bit.)

"Gods, we have got to stop doing that," Lover said, shaking his head. "How about we get some rope and tie our wrists together so we're always touching?"

"Sounds good to me," Fighter said calmly and they both reached into their tool belts and brought out a cord of rope, double knotting to make it extra tight, but not so tight as to cut off their circulation.

"What about Leo?" Piper asked desperately. "What's the format?"

"We swore upon the River Styx not to help or tell," they said together gloomily. "You guys have to guess."  
"Wait," Annabeth said, shaking her head. "You guys said you two and Mourner are together. Sadness, Love, and Fight. We see those in Leo every now and then, don't we?"

Jason hesitated before nodding. "Yeah…?"

"But we see Maker and Joker every single freaking day, even if sometimes you want some peace and then Leo is there and he pranks you and it's so annoying and—"

"Annabeth, get over the burnt Architecture 101 book, I got you another one anyhow."

"Yes, sorry, let's be civil." Annabeth tied her hair up into a ponytail. "What was I…? Oh yeah. Lover and Fighter said they were in the back. So Maker and Joker who we see every day should be in the…front!"

The twin eyes the Leos shared gleamed, happy that Annabeth finally made the first breakthrough. Then she frowned. "But what about Seventh and Arri? Where in Hades do they go?!"

"Annabeth, you're kind of cursing, which is unlike you," Percy said.

"Oh yeah. Sorry." She coughed into her hand. "Anyhow, what do you guys now about Leo's evil, fire side? Or his inferiority?"

Piper was miserable. "I don't think I _know _Leo anymore. He was like a little brother I neglected. I just…I don't know…"

She dejectedly sank into Jason's arms and cried into his chest. He hugged her close. "I'm not sure about Seventh. I've never seen him before. But Arri… Well, Leo's always used fire for good, whether to make something in the forges or to cook something."

Fighter and Lover smiled widely and nodded. They were making progress.

"So he's next to Maker?" Hazel said slowly. Their faces fell and she said quickly, "Or maybe not."

Annabeth closed her eyes and thought. They never knew Seventh was there. And Arsonist… he had said to her once…

"We have time, everybody think," Annabeth said finally. "I can't think for some reason."

Why was her mouth suddenly so dry? She opened her eyes and saw that everyone was sitting down, napping or dozing. The inside of the ship was washed dark blue by the outside.

"ATHENA'S OLIVES!" Annabeth said hysterically. "What time is it!?"

Percy snorted awake and blinked once to comprehend the situation and then reached for a watch. "Uh, eleven o'clock."

"Stupid ADHD!" Piper cursed. "We must have all been thinking so hard, the time passed!"

Annabeth closed her eyes again and furrowed her brow. Come on, daughter of wisdom, you saved the Athena Parthenos, this is simply a puzzle. So _solve _it! What did Arri say to her that time?

_Maker uses me as a tool._

"I got it," she said, opening her eyes. They were bright gray, storm clouds about to part to give everyone a blare of sun. "How much do you guys trust me with the fate of the world?"

They all looked at each other, exchanging glances except for Percy. He set his mouth defiantly and wrapped his arms around Annabeth to draw her in close, kissing the nape of her neck.

Then he whispered into her ear, "I'd trust you with anything."

"Good, because I'm not one hundred percent positive," she confessed. "Call the others. We have a meeting. This is the format…"

Lover and Fighter's eyes sparkled as their lips curled into a huge smile.

* * *

"So, you got it?" Arri said, sneering. His hair was on fire but he didn't seem to try to bat it out.

Maker looked ticked that he had been pried from the work table. "I'm sure you're wrong. Why don't you hand this boat over to us already and we don't kill you?"

Mourner's eyes were widened with fear. He looked…different. "I can't—the fear. I-It won't leave me alone. I'm sorry, Mom! No, don't, I, I, I just _can't_."

Hazel looked worried and then whirled to stick one finger into Arri's face. "What did you do to him?"

Joker flashed her a big grin, hands behind his head like this was a holiday or a vacation. "No idea what you're talking 'bout, Jewels. Cry-baby here went a bit nutso after we were alone in Leo's cabin and he's been muttering things like this ever since."

Seventh was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Seventh?" Frank asked.

"Right here," he whispered.

Everybody jumped. Seventh had been right in front of them. How come they didn't notice? It was as though he had been invisible and then flickered into view. Jason frowned. Seventh was always discreet, but that was pure ninja. Something was going on with the Leos.

"Too much," Annabeth murmured.

"What?" Arri asked, annoyed.

She looked up, gray eyes stormy. "You're killing them. That much guilt and sadness on one living being will do _horrors _for the psychological state. If being ignored and inferior is one's life pattern, then they'll fade away into oblivion. If one of them dies, you'll all die to, that's what you said. Even if we get the format wrong and you kill all of us, you _will _cease to exist."

Arri hesitated looking slightly worried, and then pasted that arrogant sneer back onto his face. "No way. You're just saying that to freak me out. I may not be an Athena geek but that won't work on me."

"Hazel, go try to comfort Mourner as much as you can, I don't think he can handle it more," Annabeth said. "Piper, watch Seventh and try to Charmspeak him into being more courageous. They won't last very long."

"I told you they'll last as long as they can!" Arri snapped, hair-fire growing a few more inches. His black eyes of coal almost glowed. "What is your problem?!"

"Losing your cool," Annabeth said. "You're losing your touch too, Arsonist. Your fire is eating away at you from the inside. How long will it be before you lose your sanity?"

"Shut up!" he hissed. "Just tell us the format so I can kill you. And I swear I will do it _very _slowly and painfully, _daughter of wisdom_."

"Hazel, Piper!" Annabeth barked.

"Right!" they both stammered and then went to their respective Leos.

Hazel glanced at Frank and then mouthed a reassurance to him before wrapping her arms around Mourner. She closed her eyes and manipulated the Mist. "It's okay, _mijo_, I'll always be here for you."

"M-M-Mom?" Mourner stuttered. "I'm so sorry, it was my entire fault. I'm a murderer, a murderer!"

"Sh, it's fine," Hazel whispered softly. "Nothing was your fault."

"A murderer, a freaking fault of nature," Mourner said, getting more and more hysterical. Hazel was worried when she felt his pulse grow unsteady like his heart was going to burst. "An arsonist, a-a devil child. Aunt Rosa was right, I'm a devil child!"

"What's so bad about being an arsonist, huh?" Arsonist yelled, running his fingers through his hair. "Shaddup, I can't think!"

"Mourner, Lover, and Fighter, in the middle," Annabeth yelled. "Maker and Joker in the front. Seventh in the very back, where no one can see much of him, but there nonetheless."

"And me?" Arri hissed. He was sneering.

Jason stepped forward and said in a grave voice, "You're not really Leo. Just something that makes him up, a tool for Maker. So you can be anywhere where he can keep an eye on you."

Everything was silent. Then Joker chuckled. "Well, you got it right. Leo can trust you all. Come on, guys—"

"NO!" Arri screamed. "NO!"

Maker put down his screwdriver. "We swore upon the River Styx, Arri. Listen to me—"

"STOP!" Arri yelled, and blasted two fire balls at Joker and Maker.

Everybody watched in horror as the smell of burning human flesh filled the room. Piper vomited again. Maker and Joker were on their knees, shaking and rolling with pain.

"He burned my face!" Joker sobbed. His hands were over his face. "He b-burned my face off!"

Maker spasmed on the ground, grabbing his arm, convulsing as the pain shot through him. His screams shook the ship. "AHHHHH! AHHHHHH!"

Annabeth was the first to recover, although she looked waxy. "Piper, Hazel, get those two over here _now!_"

Hazel leaned over to touch Mourner but when she got close his eyes went wild, seeing something that wasn't there. "NO! B-B-BACK AWAY! YOU DEMON!"

She withdrew hastily and looked at Annabeth in desperation.

Piper spoke, "Seventh, you are courageous. You are great, amazing, in fact. There is no one here who can compare. So go over there and be Leo again!"

"Charmspeaking me, huh?" Seventh said softly. He turned slowly and faced her, gray eyes burning into her soul. "That's all you've ever done, all anybody's ever done. Put me on a leash, set me down. Because I am inferior. I am nothing."

"Annabeth, it's not working," Piper sobbed, backing away. "He's too far gone, we're too late. Leo's done for."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Arsonist cried. His entire body was engulfed in flames. "We are not done! This is the beginning only!"

Percy wrapped his arms around Annabeth defensively, bringing her back a few inches. "If he does a thing to you, I will—"

"YOU'LL DO WHAT?!" Arri screamed. His eyes were as big as golf balls, pupils dilapidated to the size of pin holes. "Kill me? That's the best thing you can do! There is nothing left now! I hate it!"

His flames licked the ceiling. Frank felt slightly light headed as the fire consumed a lot of the oxygen in the room. "Calm down, Arri!"

"Calm down?" Arri screeched. He took a step back as Annabeth took a step forward. "CALM DOWN?! YOU WILL NEVER KNOW!"

He sent a fire ball at Frank who luckily ducked just in time. "You swore upon the River Styx and in case your soul wants to burn in that River for eternity after you die, I'd—"

"I want to burn!" Arri screamed sadistically. "Fine! It'll all be fine! And then I'll see the rest of you in Hades. If I go down, so will everyone else! Mother Gaea will win, and you all will be forever tortured in the Fields of Punishment while I wallow in the pain of being burnt forever more! That's what I want, right?!"

He threw his head back and laughed loudly. Cackled, really.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and took another step forward. He hastily took a step back as though she was the most dangerous one in the room and not himself.

"Walk towards them," she said strongly.

Hazel and Piper hesitated and took steps forward. Seventh disappeared and reappeared two feet away with every step Piper took. Mourner scrambled away from the daughter of Pluto as though she was the embodiment of nightmares.

Lover and Fighter set their mouths and walked forward. Jason and Percy hefted the two burnt Leos to their feet and helped them hobble towards the others, still screaming with pain.

"What are you doing?" Arri screeched.

Annabeth took one more step forward and then crossed her arms over her chest. "Getting Leo back."

The realization hit him a moment too late. All the Leos took one more step towards each other until the format was completed. The Leos began to glow.

"NOOOOO!" Arri screamed and leapt to take wring Annabeth's neck in his hands when someone threw a wrench and it hit him on the back of his head. He crumpled to the floor.

"Man, I've been wanting to do that since forever," Fighter said with a sniff. "Take care of Leo for us, will you guys?"

"Yeah, he's like all of us, only better," Lover joked. He blinked. "Wow, I must be getting fused with Joker already."

Seventh looked more opaque as he smiled. "Remember, he always kinda feels left out so include him and stuff."

Mourner nodded. "Help him swim when he's drowning in an ocean of tears."

Maker bared his teeth in a grin identical to his father's. "Let him build."

Joker finished it off. "And let him smile when he has to."

"Bye!" They all said in unison.

A white light washed over them all, flooding the room

* * *

**Await for one more chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm so sad. 2, 3 weeks of friendship and the people who stuck by me? Who followed me? Lost? Done? Ah well, remember Sherry Pincher, author of this fanfiction! Hope you read more of my work!**

* * *

The blinding white light faded. Suddenly, Leo was there, blinking the lights out. Leo. Real Leo. A bit of grease. A bit of a sarcastic, impish grin. A tiny smidge of fire burning in his eyes.

Leo.

Everybody erupted with joy save for Nico who's lips curled up half a centimeter. Piper full out sobbed and launched herself at Leo before kissing him smack on the cheek. Hazel kissed his cheek too. Frank was only a little bothered.

Okay, very bothered, but he managed to hold it back.

"Nice to have you back, buddy!" Jason bellowed, wrapping his arms around both Piper and Leo.

"Back?" he asked, utterly bewildered. "Where the heck did I go? What happened?"

Percy's jaw dropped. "You mean you don't remember anything?"

Leo frowned. "Vague images. Nothing major. Just a few things, like stabbing a training dummy in the core with a spear while at the same time making a really cool porcupine. I'm asking again, what happened?"

Annabeth smiled. "Well, Leo, here's what happened in the last ten hours…"

* * *

"Wow," Leo said, whistling. "That was…intense. I did all _that_? Sorry about that kiss, Hazel, but you're more like my sister, so it's all good. But I'm still kinda confused what happened when Pick-Up Line me took Nico away for a sec."

"Nothing happened, Fighter came in, gave me a surprise, two other of your idiotic selves came in, I was knocked out with chock," Nico blustered. His gaze told them all to not say another word.

"Well," Leo said, shuddering. "At least I'm going to stay myself for a while, now!"

They all laughed. The Argo II sailed on.

* * *

**One month later:**

**They won the war with Gaea. Presently, Percy and Annabeth were strolling down a beach. Jason and Piper were sitting on a hill, admiring the sky and the orange-tinged leaves. Frank and Hazel were drifting in the winding streets of New Rome, Frank's purple praetor robes flapping in the wind. Leo was in Bunker 9, trying to fix Festus's chip.**

**All was well, save for one thing…**

* * *

Connor and Travis Stoll **(who, by the way, I was devastated to learn were not twins) **grinned at each other mischievously. Connor hefted a glass bottle filled with blue-pink liquid in one hand.

"This is what happens when someone messes with our poker chips!" Travis whispered.

Connor laughed and chucked the glass bottle threw a newly crafted window as hard as he could. It exploded in a blue-pink cloud. Leo yelped.

And then there was another yelp, a yelp of a girl…

The brothers glanced at each other, surprised. Why was there a girl in Leo's Bunker? _Could this be future blackmail information…?!_

"Who's there?! Put it out!" the girl screamed. "I can't see! GAH! My eyes! GAH! Who put that hammer there! AHHHH!"

There was a sound of crashes and thuds as many metallic and heavy items clattered on the floor noisily. Then there was a comical sound of a yowling cat.

"GAH! WHAT IS A CAT DOING IN HERE?!"

A girl stumbled out of the Bunker, the colorful smoke drifting around her. She had shoulder-length curly brown hair, dark skin, brown eyes, and grease-smeared clothes.

"Leo never told us he had a twin sister," Connor said cautiously.

Travis blinked. "Yeah. She could totally be Leo if you trim the hair and, uh…edited out the curves."

"You don't think…?"

"Nah… could it?"

The girl whirled around, randomly. Her eyes were frantic. "Who's there? Who's going to answer to Super-Sized McShizzle!? And why is my voice so high?"

The brothers paled. They said in unison, "Oh, Hades."

"Was it a helium bomb? Very funny. TRAVIS! CONNOR! STOLLS! I do not appreciate this! And why do I feel…weird…" The girl looked down at herself.

She blinked once to signal _does not compute_, and then passed out.

* * *

**Await my next story, Lea Valdez, coming out tomorrow or today, depending on how much I get done!**


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